Staff Software Engineer

BJAK; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

BJAK is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to set technical direction and execute on major products. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will design systems, write code, and drive critical engineering work from idea to production.

The role focuses on building scalable backend and frontend architectures, guiding architecture decisions, and mentoring engineers while improving testing, security and observability in a hybrid work model.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of software engineering experience in production systems.
• Proven ability to design scalable architectures and lead major initiatives.
• Hands-on coder with strong English communication.

Responsibilities

• Owning technical design and execution for major products, systems and engineering initiatives.
• Designing scalable, reliable systems across backend, frontend, APIs, databases and infrastructure.
• Building alongside the team through coding, prototyping, code reviews, debugging and production problem-solving.
• Driving architecture decisions and trade-offs across speed, scalability, reliability, cost and maintainability.
• Turning ambiguous product problems into clear technical solutions and execution plans.
• Raising engineering quality through stronger system design, testing, security, observability and development practices.
• Leading technically critical initiatives and mentoring engineers across teams.

Skills

System design

Distributed systems

Backend & frontend

Leadership

Cloud infrastructure

Code reviews

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Job description

The Role

BJAK builds technology products used by millions of users across Southeast Asia. As our products and systems scale, we need technical leaders who can solve difficult engineering problems and raise the engineering bar around them.

The Staff Software Engineer owns technical direction and execution for major products and systems. This is a hands‑on role - you will design systems, write code, and drive critical engineering work from idea to production.

What You’ll Own

• Owning technical design and execution for major products, systems and engineering initiatives.
• Designing scalable, reliable systems across backend, frontend, APIs, databases and infrastructure.
• Building alongside the team through coding, prototyping, code reviews, debugging and production problem‑solving.
• Driving architecture decisions and trade-offs across speed, scalability, reliability, cost and maintainability.
• Turning ambiguous product problems into clear technical solutions and execution plans.
• Raising engineering quality through stronger system design, testing, security, observability and development practices.
• Leading technically critical initiatives and mentoring engineers across teams.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years of software engineering experience building and shipping production systems.
• Deep expertise in backend, frontend, distributed systems, APIs, databases or cloud infrastructure.
• Strong system design and architecture skills for complex or high-scale systems.
• Strong coding ability and willingness to remain hands‑on.
• Track record of technically leading major engineering projects from design through production.
• Ability to make sound technical trade‑offs, influence engineers and solve complex production problems.

Nice to have

• Experience scaling engineering teams, systems or development practices through significant growth.
• Experience operating across multiple products, markets or countries.

Location

This is a hybrid role. You are expected to work from our local office at least 3 days per week, with the remaining days offering flexibility to work remotely.

Candidates should be based in, or able to work from, the location where the role is advertised.

Language

English is our main working language across global teams. Strong English communication is required.

Interview Process

Our process is designed to move fast:

• Online assessment or practical task
• Technical interview
• CEO / final round

For strong candidates, we aim to complete the process and make an offer within 1 week from the start of the interview process. Candidates who complete assessments quickly will be prioritized.